Day 47: Converting to Percentages

6th Grade Math Standards: 6.RP.3c Find a percent of a quantity as a rate per 100 (e.g., 30% of a quantity means 30/100 times the quantity); solve problems involving finding the whole, given a part and the percent.

6.NS.6c Find and position integers and other rational numbers on a horizontal or vertical number line 
diagram; find and position pairs of integers and other rational numbers on a coordinate plane.

The Learning Objective: Convert numbers between fractions and percentages. Convert between decimals and percentages.

Quote of the Day: “Nearly every person who develops an idea works at it up to the point where it looks impossible, and then gets discouraged. That’s not the place to become discouraged...Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try one more time. Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” - Thomas Edison

Agenda:

1. Number line jumpstart
2. My favorite no: convert 6/8 into a percentage
3. Notes on common fractions that can be turned into a percent
4. My favorite no: converting 0.3 into a percent and 7% into a decimal
5. Notes on percentages, decimal, and fraction conversions
6. Veteran's Day Homework assignment

The Assessment: My favorite no results were pretty favorable. I'd guess slightly more than half the class could make 6/8 into a percentage (or at least a decimal).

Even the last one written here demonstrates some positive understanding that there needs to be a division problem. The series of questions that I had to ask to help students understand what number was the divisor and which was the dividend went back to our last class.

• Teacher: What is 6/8? Student: A fraction
• Teacher: What is a fraction? Student: A part of a whole
• Teacher: Oh it's a part of a whole, so should you get more or less than one? Student: Less than one
• Teacher: So does 1.33 make sense or 0.75? Student: 0.75

This was the results of the second series of my favorite no. Students always have a hard time with decimals that don't go to the hundredths place or percents that are single digit. Thus I tested students on 7% to a decimal and 0.3 to a percent. Here were the results of 7% to a decimal. The more detail the student shows in the answer, the more encouraged I was.

Homework: Veteran's Day percentage, fraction, and decimal conversion. I have never done something like this before on Veteran's Day, but I think it was a nice way to educate with a dual purpose.

My Glass Half-Full Take: There were a good deal of notes in the class, but there was engagement. That may have had to do with the fact that it was Monday and I generally have my best audience when the students are well rested, but nonetheless the kids enjoyed the notes. They were thoroughly understanding and felt challenged when I went off script and added problems like finding the percentage for 1.25.

One Thing to Do Differently: I created a problem using the Celtics box score from Saturday night. One player made 6 out of 9 shots and another made 7 out of 14. I asked the students when they finished the homework to find the percentage of each player. Then I asked them to determine how many shots the player that made 7 out of 14 would have to make in order to have a better percentage than the player that made 6 out of 9 shots. I thought this was deeper thinking, but ultimately nobody got to it since we ran out of time. For the students that answered My Favorite No correctly, I probably should have given them this problem much sooner.

Link of the Day: Some percentages and fraction conversions are worth memorizing. This game can help.